Why I still bank with the Co-op
Jun 26th, 2008 by cpev
I’m usually only moved to post about companies when they’ve annoyed me. I know I’m not alone in that.
But today I’d like to tip my hat to the Co-operative Bank, which exceeded my expectations during what could have been a tiresome phone call.
See, I was phoning to downgrade my current account, on which I had agreed to pay a monthly charge several years ago. Ah, pre-credit crunch. I was sucked in by the prospect of automatic travel insurance, a (small) fee-free overdraft and various money-off vouchers.
But recently I realised that I didn’t really need any of this stuff and decided that the £8.50 might be better spent elsewhere (or not spent at all).
So I phoned today, fully expecting to get some kind of emergency customer service intervention – you know, the stuttering, the audible intake of breath, the I’ll-have-to-transfer-you-to-my-manager, etc etc.
But no, I got a reasonable reminder that my overdraft would disappear and that the travel insurance would stop, and… that was it. No hard sell. No attempt to belittle my attempt to save some money. All rather civilised. And my account was switched with no fuss, no change of bank card, nor sort code.
Perhaps you could attribute this to the Co-op being naive and soft-nosed. Not attempting to railroad your customers when they try and stem the flow of cash to you? How quaint!
But I prefer to interpret it as grown-up customer service. I’d made the decision. He could have made the process of following it through more difficult (at which point I would have threatened to move banks). We could have gone through the whole sorry rigmarole, with the same outcome, but both of us left feeling cheapened.
I’ve had some ups and downs with the Co-op. And it still irks me that an ‘ethical’ company never fails to miss an opportunity to tell you that there’s a loan approved for you.
But encounters such as today’s persuade me to stay put.
* Compare and contrast: Tamsin B’s close scrape on the M4 today. Mercifully, Tamsin’s ok. But anyone who reads her blog or my Facebook page or this post will be unlikely to rent a car from Best Hire of Battersea anytime soon.
They do sound like a Bank that treats you like an adult.
I was amused by NatWest before I left for Oz. I have been with Natwest now 9 years with the same account, regular money going in, a few hiccups in the past (a few bounced DDs, but not much else). I have tried to upgrade to an “adult” account, I have had a step account, aimed at people with bad credit from the past (18-21 years old past, no shame or hiding there)
2 weeks before I flew out to Oz for the next 4 years, I got the call, “Hi Mr. Edwards, this is Hayley from NatWest. We have been looking at the activity on your account and would like to offer to upgrade your account now for you, it has already been pre-approved”
Oh the irony……
Maybe you just have to emigrate to be a real man. Or maybe this is another reason to come back to Blighty, Ned?
My favourite bankers-reveal-themselves-to-be-arses moment was when I switched my account from Barclays, were I’d banked for four or five years. I told the adviser I wanted to switch to the Co-op because of its ethical policy (not, I think, in a particularly pompous manner) and he literally turned to his colleague and SMIRKED.
What a git.